Politics
Housing targets and the arithmetic of consent
The number is achievable. The number in the places people want to live is not, and that is a different problem entirely.
Culture
The archive that was nearly skipped
August 17, 2026
Nine thousand negatives in a garage in Bootle, catalogued by two volunteers over four years, now in the city collection.
A quiet year for the concert hall
August 17, 2026
Attendance flat, programming braver than it has been in a decade. The two facts are related, and not in the direction you would guess.
Business
Small manufacturers, one year after the en...
August 17, 2026
Margins recovered, confidence did not. Three owners on why they are still not investing.
What the port numbers mean
August 17, 2026
Container volumes are down eleven per cent and nobody in the sector seems worried. We asked six people why.
Sport
A season in the fourth tier
August 17, 2026
Two thousand seven hundred a week, a part-time squad and a chairman who publishes the accounts. It works, mostly.
Promotion, and the wage bill that comes wi...
August 17, 2026
The parachute payment arithmetic that decides whether a promoted side spends or holds. Most hold, and most are right to.